When you have Sugar Cookies and Gingerbread men there is an important part to building the perfect cookie, sugar cookie frosting. Sure you can sprinkle colored sugar and other sprinkles on your sugar cookies and call things good but there is just something special about frosting and decorating cookies. It is something that I grew up doing and my kids have as well. In our house Santa has to have sugar cookies and my kids fight debate over which cookies to put on the plate on Christmas Eve.
While I do love the look of royal icing and many sugar cookie icings, they are not my favorite. My favorite is a soft and fluffy mix of confectioners sugar, shortening, milk, and a vanilla. When decorating we simply use a knife and spread on the frosting although sometimes I get fancy and use a piping bag. The cookies form a crust after being iced and allowed to dry but the frosting stay soft underneath. To store I stack cookies between sheets of wax paper. One of the best parts of this frosting is that it is reminiscent of the frosting that is used on lofthouse style cookies and we all know how addictive those cookies are! Seriously who wouldn’t want to decorate their cookies with it?
Check out my 12 Days of Homemade Christmas for other great ideas!
- 4 cups confectioners' sugar
- ½ cup shortening
- 5 tablespoons milk or as needed
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Food Coloring, if desired
- Beat confectioners' sugar and shortening together in a large bowl until smooth. Gradually mix in milk and vanilla extract with an electric mixer, until smooth and desired consistency/thickness, about 5-10 minutes. Color with food coloring if desired.
Recipe from Allrecipes.com